JKLF CONDEMN INDIAN THREATS, ACCUSE WEST FOR THE ARMS RACE

London 19 May, 98

While Jane's Defense Weekly published on Wednesday claimed that India dodged US spy satellites and created a diversion to carry out its underground nuclear tests in secrecy, a leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has accused the Western military and other intelligence agencies of deliberately turning a blind eye to India's nuclear weapons program and said that it was incomprehensible that US and UK governments did not have an advanced warning of Indian plans. JKLF secretary general in UK/Europe said that Britain's reluctance to impose any sanctions against India would suggest that Britain may well have been prepared for this eventuality which has come as a bigger shock to nuclear non-proliferation lobby. He said that a small Canada-based Punjabi newspaper had reported Indian reparations for its nuclear tests in Pokhran, five days before they were conducted on 11 May, which points to the absurdity that American CIA did not have prior knowledge as claimed. He further said that he himself had pointed to the potentially dangerous nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan in a letter printed in the Guardian in August 1994 and that the Indian BJP's election pledge of developing nuclear weapons was no secret.

Referring to Indian Home Ministers L K Advani's press conference in Srinagar (18May) where he implicitly threatened to use the bomb against Pakistan, Mr Khan warned that the threat of a military strike in Azad Kashmir was a real one and supported the former Pakistani Prime Minister's Benazir Bhutto's suggestion that the world leaders should consider a "pre-emptive military strike" to neutralise India's nuclear capability (article published in Los Angeles Times, May 15) before its too late. He claimed that the India's nuclear bomb would not deter the Kashmiri independence movement but the whole military scenario could change drastically if Pakistan was unable to desist the pressure of developing nuclear device. The JKLF leader however, urged Pakistan to show restraint and not make any hasty decisions which could have long term repercussions for the country both politically and economically.

Meanwhile many experts and scientists in USA have shed their doubt at Indian scientists' tall claims that the device they exploded was a "true Hydrogen bomb". "They may have misled the world because of the pressure to deliver," experts say. An article in the Science Times says that "the emerging debate among experts is whether India has the evidence to back up this claim and, if so, what the implications may be for weapons, politics and the world. For Pakistan and China, and stability in the tense region, the H-bomb issue is crucial. But already scientists and weapon experts say that India's announcements are rich in mysteries, and that the evidence it has so far presented is insufficient to clear them up."